Beautiful innovation: the first 20 hours of FF XIII

Final Fantasy XIII features everything we love about the series: over-the-top …

Final Fantasy games often seem like a mixed bag. One one hand, they tend to take too long to get into; the first ten hours or so always feel like something you have to slog through before things really become exciting. After a while, the battles can start to feel repetitive. They eat up more of our time than we really should allow. But they're also beautiful. And epic. Once the stories get going, they're fascinating. More importantly, they become addictive. Such games are definitely an acquired taste, but they're a delicacy for those of us who have come to enjoy JRPGs.

Final Fantasy XIII is particularly noteworthy in an already extraordinary series, though, because it brings about a number of design changes. While the game retains the amazing production values that the franchise is famous for, its gameplay has been modified to deliver something that feels faster paced than its predecessors and often seems more like an action title than a proper RPG. This might sound worrying to dedicated fans, but rest assured: based on our first twenty hours with the game, the outcome is excellent.

The beginning of an epic game

So far, we've spent about twenty hours with the PS3 build of the game, and another three with the 360 version. However, with a title that takes at least 50 hours to complete, this amount of time is really only enough to come away with some strong impressions rather than a final opinion. That said, it seems like almost everything we've loved about the Final Fantasy series is present in the latest installment.

The story begins on Cocoon, an artificial planet that was created over a millennium earlier by a godlike being known as a fal'Cie. Cocoon became a safe harbor for humanity as it floated above another world called Pulse. People actually live beneath the surface of Cocoon, guided by a fascist-like government that exiles anyone who has visited Pulse. Naturally, this doesn't go over well with some people, so a rebellion ensues. As the game starts, players are dropped in the middle of a battle between the rebels and the government; the backstory gradually unfolds over the first few hours between a series of frantic battles.

The two principal characters are Snow and Lightning. Snow is the leader of the aforementioned rebels, and is initially moonlighting as a hero who's on a quest to save his quasi-fiancé, Serah. Lightning, it turns out, is also on a quest to save Serah because she's her sister. There's a wide array of supporting playable characters, too numerous to mention here, most of whom are brought together via their similar paths for the first few hours of the game.

The game's production values are, unsurprisingly, stellar. After all, this is a Final Fantasy title, and Square Enix has never exactly scrimped on such things with this series. The first thing you'll notice, of course, is the game's visual presentation. The world of Cocoon is especially amazing; it's both beautiful and mildly eerie, thanks to the melding of organic/steampunk/futuristic aesthetics. Character models are particularly lovely to look at, even if their designs often flirt with the ridiculous. It should be noted that the 360's graphics occasionally look fuzzy during some cutscenes, while the PS3 version seems to have sharper graphics overall, but it's a relatively minor quality difference. Both versions of the game look lovely, and neither features a noticeable drop in framerates during hectic sequences.

The game's audio is also great, but the voice-acting deserves particular attention because it's almost universally excellent. The dialogue is also very well-written. The only character that isn't enjoyable to listen to is Vanille (who ends up serving as the game's narrator): her voice is weirdly chipper and features a bizarre faux-Australian accent that will drive most players up the wall. Other than this one irritation, the game's audio is excellent.

It's an RPG, and yet it's not

Final Fantasy XIII isn't an RPG in the same way its predecessors have been. It's a bit like how Mass Effect 2 was technically an RPG, but it was more of a third-person shooter. In this case, it feels like this is an action game that wants to be an RPG. The biggest change from earlier games in the series is how linear Final Fantasy XIII is: towns have been removed, and the game constantly shoves you along a set path to further the story. Some have complained about this, but I didn't have any problem with it: previous Final Fantasy titles have been much more open, but the freedom of choice has seemed superficial since your choices never really seem to affect the games' stories all that much. This time, the linearity works; it makes the game feel constantly fast-paced since there isn't anything to distract players from the main story.

The battle system, meanwhile, is totally unlike anything that's ever been in the series. What's first apparent is that random encounters aren't around: enemies can be seen coming from afar. If you're lucky, you can skirt an enemy's field of vision and score a preemptive strike. Also, gone is the micromanaged turn-based system that so many of us were used to. In previous games, battles were turn-based affairs that allowed players to take as much time as they pleased during their characters' turns. Not only are the turns gone, but players don't really have any control over the supporting characters in a battle party.

In a fight, you only control the party leader while the supporting characters are managed by the game's AI. This sounds horrible in theory, but it works really well in practice. The only problem is that if the team leader gets taken out in a fight, the battle is over. Despite the fact that your teammates have no problem using a healing potion when hit points start to get low, they apparently don't understand how to use a Phoenix Down. This can get irritating at times, but once you learn to keep your eye on the party leader's health, this usually isn't much of an issue.

Battles are also much faster paced than they have been in the past. The timing in a fight is a unique mixture of real-time and turn-based gameplay: a gauge fills in real time, and when it fills completely the character will act out the actions that players have dictated. Certain actions require different amounts of the gauge to be filled; so if you don't need to wait for the gauge to fill all the way, you can interrupt its progress and your character will immediately move to engage an enemy.

The game also introduces its "Paradigm Shift" system, which is reminiscent of the sphere-based skill trees in the Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 titles (though it's not nearly as convoluted). There are a number of different roles that can be assigned to characters, including Commando, Medic, Ravager, and Saboteur. Each of these roles has different attacks/abilities associated with them, but you can switch a role mid-battle should you decide that you need a medic on your team instead of an extra brawler or whatever. It takes a little while to get used to this system, but it is useful because it allows you to adapt your team's combat style on the fly. This is especially helpful during tough boss battles: if someone's hit points are getting low, you can shift your team's paradigm into a defensive mode for a few seconds and have one of your party members heal everyone, and then shift back to an aggressive paradigm.

Square-Enix certainly took some departures from its established game mechanics in Final Fantasy XIII. Most of these changes seem to have paid off, but there will surely be some gamers who hate these new differences and yearn for a return to the original design elements. That said, there's a lot to like even in just the first half of the game. When you can play a game for twenty hours and look forward to another thirty, that's certainly a good sign.